So watching the NY Phil. with their new timpanist last night brought up an interesting question. They performed Beethoven 3 in what I have heard is Maazel's edition and it featured many altered tunings and parts for the timpanist. Instead of the usual two pitches you could find four pitches and it even appeared some chromatic pedalling. The purist in me says that it's not what Beethoven wrote so it shouldn't be changed. The percussionist in me says that the parts sounded great and added a lot to the music. The timpani were actually able to be used outside of their normal V-I chordal relationship. So what I ask is, do we alter? We all know that Beethoven was really at the forefront of a lot of things in the timpani world (tri-tones, 6ths, octaves, pitch changes between movements) and would often even use timpani in a fairly prominent and or soloistic role. He did not however have access to pedal timpani and the possibilities that would open up for pitch. Would this have changed how he wrote? We don't know but it is very possible when looking at a lot of what he did. So at this point I am going to just straddle the fence. I like the alterations (and have actually heard them done in the works of other composers - this is the first time I have heard it in Beethoven) but I don't think I am ready to see it all the time yet. But, it sounded cool and would be A LOT of fun to play.